361 Golden Retrievers Put 101 Dalmatians To Shame

The golden retrievers met last week in Tomich, Scotland and broke the record for the largest gathering of the breed ever.

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At Guisachan Estate, The Golden Retriever Club of Scotland put together an event to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the breed. The location, which once belonged to Lord Tweedmouth, was where the dogs were first bred in 1868. The breed has grown to be one of the most popular in the world. On Thursday July 19th, 361 golden retrievers, with their owners, of course, gathered for what was the club’s biggest event yet.

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Doreen McGuan, the chairman of The Golden Retriever Club of Scotland, told Metro, "The 150th has been a roaring success. We've gone up from 188 golden retrievers 10 years ago at the 2006 gathering to 222 in 2016 and now, today we got 361. It's appropriate we've beaten our record on the big anniversary.” The organizers and attendees couldn’t have been happier with the gathering.

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The man who owned the estate when the first pups were born, the aforementioned Lord Tweedmouth, also known as Dudley Majoribanks, had crossbred a tweed water spaniel with a wavy-coated retriever, named Belle and Nous respectively. He did this because he was attempting to breed a dog that could swim long distances to fetch game during hunts. And it worked.

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Following the initial mixing, he went on to develop the Irish setter, St. John’s water dogs and two wavy black-coated retrievers. Speaking of other breeds, golden retrievers weren’t the only ones in attendance. Pet owners from all over came to take part in the special day. Check out the video below to see the dogs in action...